So last week weds i went to the Gagosian Gallery to see Jeff Koons New Paintings (I guess aside from it being his new paintings the show is called New Paintings). Well I have an interest in Koons because his Made In Heaven show in my opinion was Genius… aside from that most of his stuff is good… and the rest is a bit Blah. But anywho I have never had a chance to see his work at a gallery (I have seen his work at MOCA the best one there being Michael Jackson and Bubbles). Well back to the show, I walked in saw these giant painting of naked females, tress, and pussy drawings, there was 10 paintings total raging from 2.5 – 3.5 million each. Now that’s the kind of money my work is worth about now. So congrats Koons for making it happen. Here are some pics so that you all believe me and don’t think I’m full of malarkey.

Marc, the founder of ecko unltd talked about his personal path as well as its influential men clothing..

Wow yet again…My manuscript is absolutely pouring out of me, and at 236 pages, it’s coming along nicely. I figure I’ll be somewhere around 300 by Christmas, but I’m not at all concerned with that, since the key is to have it be what it is, and not force the issue.

I’m still speechless about how fast this year has flown by. Man, I still remember the countdown to 2009 like it was just a few months ago, not an entire year…

Anyway, onward and forward while enjoying the journey. As always, stay tuned.

- Jeff Emmerson

(click picture to view in full)
Random post… but here is Jeff.. .my model.. and fiance.

Well, Aromathians, that time of the year known as “the holidays” is upon us once again. You all know what that means – time spent with family, eating too much good food, receiving gifts from people – and giving them in return. OK, maybe I’m being a little hasty in starting to talk about Christmas, but “Turkey Day” has come and gone, and that’s what I’m going to talk about in this post.

A co-worker put it this way. “I like Thanksgiving the best of all the holidays. You don’t have to go out and buy a lot of gifts. You just get together with your family and friends, eat a big meal, and be thankful.” There’s a great deal contained in that simple statement, and all of it true.

Now, I could bore you all with the history lesson, but I won’t. I’ll just say that Thanksgiving, even more than the 4th of July, is probably the most American of holidays. After all, we’ve all heard the story of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, and while the truth of the story will never be fully known, it does show that a holiday devoted to thanks goes back to the beginnings of the country.

But there’s more to it than that. Other holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, are rooted in religious beliefs. Still others are based upon patriotism, such as Memorial Day and the 4th of July. Even New Years Day comes from the simple turning of the calendar. But Thanksgiving? Sure, it’s related to religious celebrations. But it’s also unique in that it is a secular day based upon one thing everyone of every creed and faith can agree on – giving thanks for all the abundance of blessings we have in this country.

And how do we celebrate it? Eating turkey (a very American animal) and watching American football. Strange, isn’t it? A country made up of immigrants, with no “culture” of its own, yet we’ve made up things that are so uniquely American that I can’t even imagine them being in other countries. Sure, they do occasionally play American football outside of the US (that strange Canadian version is an exception, but it doesn’t even use the same rules…), and people across the world eat turkey today, yet no one will argue that these things aren’t quintessentially American.

There’s the downside of our culture, too. I mean, who else but we Americans would celebrate our thanks for a good harvest by stuffing out faces to the point of bursting? It’s no wonder we have an obesity problem.

OK, maybe I’m being a little hard on us. But you hafta admit…

Hey! I kid. I kid….

That being said, I will say that I do enjoy Thanksgiving, perhaps even more than Christmas, for just the reasons my co-worker said. Christmas is so commercialized that it’s hard to slow down and just enjoy it. After all, when stores are putting up their Christmas sale displays at Halloween time? And what’s with two local radio stations going to twenty-four hour Christmas music before Thanksgiving this year! That seems a little bizarre to me. And as for New Years? Well, that always leaves me feeling nostalgic. Especially after a couple beers and those 2:00 AM Magic: The Gathering games that have gotten to be popular with my friends the last couple years.

But Thanksgiving? It’s just a nice change of pace. A time to get together with family and friends. Relax and unwind. Watch a lot of football with my brothers. Meet my Aunt and cousin for breakfast. Sit back and contemplate all the things that make life good, despite all the day to day struggles we all face. I mean, we live in a place where, as one sports commentator said last year, “We live in a country where we can sit back and argue about football all day – and I get paid for it.” That may sound like a cliché, but there is much truth in it. It’s not just that we have the freedom to do it – that’s one issue, and I’m certainly grateful for that freedom.

It’s more than that: it’s the simple fact that we do have so much to be thankful for. Not only do we have food on the tables, a roof over our head, and computers and TV’s to watch that football on, but we can sit around and argue about football like it matters. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, does the fact that my Lions are terrible AGAIN this year really matter? No. Millions of people struggle for day to day needs. But we here in America are so blessed that we can worry about games, and hobbies, and all the other things that consume our free time – and pretend they matter.

Now, don’t get me wrong. All these things are great. But when you’re done reading this post, just sit back for a minute and say a word of thanks that we can have these things in our lives, and be thankful.

Greyhound racing is ending in Wisconsin and there are a lot of wonderful dogs who need to be placed. You can check out this situation at Greyhound Pets of America – Wisconsin to see if you’d like to adopt one of these fantastic dogs or make a contribution to their care.

Hihetetlenül tehetséges basszusgitáros. 14 évesen kezdett gitározni, 2 évvel később mint én. Baromira féltékeny vagyok!! Játszott már együtt olyan nagy nevekkel, mint  Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton és Jeff Beck. Jeff Beck zenekarában 2007 óta ő a baszzeros. Most 23 éves.

Mély meghajlás (nem félreértetendő). Respect.

feleségül azért nem venném.. hábádábádábádábá dögöljön meg.

xxx

N.B.C

I found this picture on Twitter. Big Brother 11 winner Jordan and Fan Favorite winner Jeff were spotted in an airport terminal and will be on the 12th season of The Amazing Race which is currently being filmed now. This will be the second time that contestants from another CBS show will be competing as a team on The Amazing Race; the first being Survivor’s Rob & Amber.

I wish Jeff & Jordan all the luck in the world in the race and can’t wait to see them on season 12.

We met Becky and Jeff on a Saturday afternoon at their local Starbucks in Los Angeles. During our first meeting we talked about their wedding venue and some of the details of their wedding and specifically what kind of wedding images they were looking for. I asked them if they had any ideas about where they would like to have their engagement session and Becky responded that she loved the idea of taking pictures in a vineyard. While I didn’t know of too many vineyards in the Los Angeles area I knew there were several beautiful ones in the Santa Ynez Valley north of Santa Barbara. And so…off we went to the tiny town of Solvang and Firestone Vineyards for a beautiful Fall engagement session…(You can click on any of the images to see them full size )

Looks like this bakery/cafe knew we were coming .

An unbelievably gorgeous ring (the macaroon doesn’t look bad either ).

Dancing with the locals is always a good way to spend the afternoon!

One of my favorite images of the day.

Thank you Becky and Jeff for being such a fun couple to work with! We are looking forward to a fantastic wedding in June!

Thanks also to Firestone Vineyards for providing a wonderful venue for the engagement shoot.

-Mark

5 rounds for time of:
50 air squats
100 jump ropes
25 left footed jump ropes
25 right footed jump ropes
50 jump ropes
25 left footed jump ropes
25 right footed jump ropes

- For every missed Jump Rope turn, must do 5 situps (at end of workout)- time is added to total workout time.

Results: Jeff- 17:53

In which I walk upon an assemblage happening,
rubber soles rolling on a sidewalk thick with frost,
along a red brick wall, long on a street unused,
I discover, where once hung a window, a box:
paint-flaked brackets and turn-buttons
hold a sheet of glass in frame over
a square hole hung high in blue board.
A pigeon, roosting, falls
into the in-between:
an aviary.
The pigeon, pressed sideways, fans open her wings,
clamped, not clipped,
one backward, sliding over cold glass,
one foreword, catching on particleboard.
Expanding, she freezes, gold eyes ringed,
fluttering in sympathetic rhythm
with her chest,
compressed.
Skipping: three frames of a stop-motion ballet.

I remember, when, as a child, I squeezed into the space
behind pantry shelving in an old icebox,
hands and chest scraping against cool brick.
Upon feeling rough wood
catch the back of my shirt,
I pushed back, pressed
into the crack like a cam.
I remember my cycling thoughts growing shorter and
louder like a sucking, howling storm winding
tighter,
until no thought came
but as the immediacy of the spasm
of my arms and my breath.
I could not release
for the certainty
that the walls were closing in,
my child’s chest expanding to fill the in-between.

I remember my anger
when first trapped
in finger cuffs.

I draw out my camera to capture
the image of this pigeon,
wings spread beneath a hole cut
from matte-blue wood sky,
gliding over a plane
which holds, juxtaposed, the reflection
of bare oaks against a pale sky,
above a long red-brick building
with black windows,
and an observer,
free to move like the
mites crawling up her back.

Run Hill .1 mile or row 250 meters

20 jumping jacks

15 sit ups

15 back extensions on GHD, 45 Extension bench, or physio ball)

10 Single Arm Hi Rows DB or KB

4 rounds

Tim “Four Hour Workweek” Ferris has a great post on this here. The short answer? If you’re pleasing most of the people most of the time, then you’re probably doing it wrong. A great line from the post – “Let the critics criticize. It’s the builders who count.”

Wow, what a year its been! Man oh man…I could never have predicted that things would go this way this year, but isn’t that the way life often goes.

I just spoke to my university, and I’m 100% good to go for doing my Masters in Social Work upon graduation! I’m going to likely select the Individual & group “option”, since I want to work in a clinical/correctional setting. The beauty is that I can always do my Ph.D after that, but I certainly don’t have to go that route do make an excellent living, which is great to know.

Another step in the evolution of Jeff Emmerson, and this will surely be in my book! Aah, the twists and turns of an “Existentialist”, as I’ve been called by a staff member at my school.

Now that’s a compliment

- Jeff Emmerson

And this wonderful day started with a great email. My Mom has gotten Dawn and myself flights to go out and see both my parents over Christmas. It’s the first time I will have seen Mom in 4 1/2 years, and almost two years since I’ve seen my Dad (as he comes out west to ski).

That flash of positivity and excitement came crashing down due to my employment. Not that I have to go to work, but rather every piece of shit that existed hit the proverbial fan. Maybe I needed the big up to keep me even throughout the day (though I did want to yell at a few employees for less than intelligent decision making). But I had a revelation throughout the course of Chuck Barris’ old show.

I’m going to move my .ca to be this blog. Yup, jeffvickers.ca will soon be the new address of this blog. I have been toying with multiple templates, playing with layouts, and my stumbling block has always been getting blog code into the template, as it is beyond just cumbersome. And since the other pages can much more easily transfer here than vice versa, this blog will be the all encompassing home of me. Period.

Additions to this site are soon to follow.

Interdum vos ut occumbo sinus aces.

We, in this cave in this hillside, stolen,
sails slung in this sodium vapor sky,
turn on this raft groaning on cables hung
through this bone-knife frame watching these hours die
cast and low lain in this bowl of slate bent
through this pool reflecting this zoetrope
sky over this garden. On this cool bench,
through this white noise loamed, as interlopers
titter through hands, through this wall, we hold still
in our vanity, our brushed wet lamplight
drawn fresh again across this bone sill,
this sidereal map, and these horse hooves alight.
In these hours stolen, all that is earned
stays common until by our hands is turned.